Full Circle June

 Hello June and Welcome Summer! As the summer season begins, our lives begin to embrace fun, relaxed activities such as swimming, cook outs and lots of outside time.

June also holds some dates that are very emotional for our family - ones that represent the passing of one life and embracing of a new life. This June will find sweet hubby and I celebrating 32 years of marriage!  What a divine gift of God that came in His perfect timing. In the same year, 8 days before the wedding, my father was tragically killed. Our family gathered for a funeral and a wedding in the same week. Life can be like that, holding pain and joy in the same hand, but always being balanced with the gift of God's grace.

As a Christian, I believe pain and grief comes from the result of living in an evil world. God does not cause the events that bring pain, but through the process of grief, we can find hope, wholeness and healing. And our stories from the other side of grief can be used to walk with others traveling down their own journey of pain. There can be a purpose that comes from our pain.

God can combine our tools with our trials to bring us into a ministry. Recently, I realized my pain can be turned into purpose that can bring to life one of my favorite verses...

II Corinthians1:3-4  Praise  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies  and the God of all comfort.  He comforts us in all our affliction,  so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 

Let me take you with me for a beautiful memory. When I was a teenage girl, my family and I were on vacation at the beach - one of our favorite places. My father and I were standing in the ocean talking and letting the waves roll over us. It was a perfect beach day - sunshine, beautiful weather, a day truly  etched as a cherished memory. Dad recognized the beauty of the moment and shared some sobering words to me that day. He brought up the reality that one day, he would pass away and would no longer be with us. He knew from his experience in the death of his father how hard the journey of loss was. . He talked about how the memories during grief may bring incredible sadness when reflected on. How simply thinking back on a special time together would bring tears. But as time passes, he advised, those same memories would not be as painful,  but I would be able to look back on these moments and feel joy and gratitude for those moments. 

A few years after that special talk, dad's death occurred and  the wedding continued on as planned. My new husband and I were on our way to the honeymoon. The route we traveled took us right through the beach town my family vacationed at. With a heart full of grief and loss, I bent over in the seat as we rode through, unable to even look out the window as we drove through the beach town. 

After a few years, my husband and I again returned to the beach for a vacation. As life moved on, we had children and created new memories with our family at the same beach. Dad's words became true, in time I could reflect back on the memories and the beach town with thankfulness and joy. 

As the years rolled by, my story got lost in the busyness of raising a family. Once the children grew up and began lives of their own, the Lord opened doors to share my story of trauma and the hope that God can bring to our hardest situations. I became involved with a ministry Nothing Is Wasted which exists to help you navigate your trials, tragedies, and transitions and find purpose in your pain. 

This spring, in partnership with Nothing Is Wasted, I became a certified coach to lead a small group through a Pain to Purpose Course. An amazing thing happened that truly brought purpose from my pain. 

Sweet hubby and I had planned to spend a few days to visit the beach, and the dates corresponded with the last session of the Pain to Purpose class I was leading. That morning, walking along the beach, gazing at the waves where the beautiful memory of my father and I occurred, I was rehearsing in my mind the final lesson of the session later that day.  The realization of how powerful that moment was suddenly hit me. The pain that had put me in the floorboard of the car to avoid seeing this beach town was turned into a path of healing where new memories and family traditions were made. The purpose of walking with others through their journey of grief had come full circle. On the balcony with the sound of ocean waves in the background, a zoom meeting completed the Pain to Purpose class where the comfort I received from God, was used to share comfort with others. 

Pain is a commo denominator that binds our hearts together. We can walk through the painful valleys of life, knowing God will not waste these times, but in His time, bring something beautiful from it.